TORONTO — Sergei Bobrovsky made 19 saves, Florida scored three times in a 6-minute, 24-second span in the second period and the Panthers routed the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-1, in Game 7 on Sunday night to advance to the Eastern Conference final.
The defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers will play the Carolina Hurricanes in the conference final, opening on the road Tuesday night.
Seth Jones, Anton Lundell and Jonah Gadjovich scored in the second-period burst and Eetu Luostarinen, Sam Reinhart and Brad Marchand — into an empty net — added goals in the third. Marchand, Luostarinen and Aleksander Barkov each had two assists.
Maxi Domi scored for Toronto. Joseph Woll stopped 27 shots.
Jones opened the scoring at 3:15 of the second, beating Woll to the far post with a shot from the right side. Lundell struck at 7:18, putting in a rebound. Gadjovich followed at 9:39 off another rebound.
Domi cut it to 3-1 at 2:07 of the third, beating Bobrovsky between the legs. Luostarinen countered 47 seconds later for Florida, and Reinhart scored at 9:24.
Referee Chris Rooney left 13 seconds into the second period after Florida’s Niko Mikkola was jousting for the puck and his stick went into Rooney’s face. Garrett Rank took Rooney’s spot.
